Owned by the city of San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir They also built a spillway that was too steep and did not install energy dissipators along the spillway. Im curious why the percentage of capacity has stayed almost flat for the past 6 weeks or so and below historical average. The information on Isabella has been fluctuating drastically (by a factor of 10!) In addition, San Francisco receives approximately one-tenth of its power from hydroelectricity generated by the gravity-driven flow from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. With how we can now basically pinpoint future precipitation amounts at least a month in advance, no reason to not let these reservoirs fill up past historic averages for this date. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com, Yoohyun.Jung@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang, @yoohyun_jung. DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. Click here for the SFPUC's 2020State of the Regional Water System Report. "Soils that have become hydrophobic due to wildfire can also contribute to increased runoff because the water is less able to penetrate the burned soil," the department said. According to the SFPUC, the upper reaches of the Tuolumne River have received about 36 inches of rain since the start of the water year in October, almost as much as what the area averages in a year. Great visualization Chris! Ive added it to my bookmarks for quick reference. pertained to water that was wasted, and there was no claim that At the beginning of this water year, which started on October 1, 2022, the state's largest water reservoir, Lake Shasta, was a third full, at 33 percent. finding an alternative water and power source (Hetchy Hetchy also by the Raker Act. I had a class in spillway design many years ago. 9 of 12 10 of 12 Hetch Hetchy Reservoir with Wapama Falls near Groveland, Calif. on Wednesday March 12, 2014, is currently at fifty percent of capacity. I love this this site too. Excellent graphic! Lake Shasta, the state's largest reservoir, rose 2.9 feet and added 31,020 acre-feet of water. Although Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is the most well-known, it stores less than 25% of the system's water. Current conditions of LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NAVD 1988, LAKE OR RESERVOIR WATER SURFACE ELEVATION ABOVE NGVD 1929, and RESERVOIR STORAGE are available. Californias largest water agencies, in both the urban and agricultural sectors, have invested in ambitious groundwater banking programs inKern County. This was helpful to project seasonal trends & storm impacts. a broad meaning that had been previously applied in an An improvement: Could you include a bar for Last year at this date? do so. This dashboard is great! Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. She was previously an engagement reporter. The commission plans to decide Nov. 23 whether to formally ask customers to conserve water. Your email address will not be published. Hetch Hetchy is one of nine reserviors in a water system that serves San Francisco and other Bay Area communities. Hoping they start building more reservoirs soon. This is wonderful information. The valley is For example, the average storage level for Feb. 7 is usually 65% of capacity for Trinity Dam, but currently its at 31%. supplies water to the San Francisco Bay Area. Python is used to extract the data from this page hourly and wrangle the data in to a clean format. I wonder why it doesnt work for you. Partly because of low water, the rivers chinook salmon runs have plummeted from tens of thousands of fish annually a few decades ago to fewer than 1,000 in recent years. Maybe just acre/ft with ^ or down arrow. Water is rapidly flowing into the state's reservoirs. If you look at the inflow data on the major reservoirs, its pretty flat. I second that request. Navigation and Navigable Waters 33.208.82 Hetch Hetchy, Cherry Valley, and Don Pedro Dams and Reservoirs. Over the summer, Gov. Thanks. Impounded by OShaughnessy Dam, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir water passes through hydroelectric powerhouses before it enters the San Joaquin Pipelines, the Tesla Ultraviolet Treatment Facility, and the Coast Range Tunnel on its journey to the Bay Area. window.addEventListener("orientationchange", function() { Great resource! During late summer and early fall, it will be necessary to move stored supplies from Cherry or Don Pedro Reservoirs into the pipeline. Born in Seoul, Yoohyun began her career in Arizona, where she worked for two of the state's largest newspapers covering various beats, including criminal justice and education. A wet December produced ample snowfall, which is still sitting at high elevations. This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. Remaining Capacity text in the legend should be brown? Due to its high-altitude location at 3,900 feet above sea level Exclusive: Stunning photos show Yosemite National Park under 15 feet of Warriors treating Andrew Wiggins with understandable patience, but his California snowpack hits highest level this century for March, could Map shows which parts of California exceeded entire years worth of rain, Map shows stunning improvement in California drought, Last chance to see: Bay Bridge lights turn off on Sunday. Sacramento CA 95833, Everything about California water that matters, Western States Water Agencies and Districts. It is on the graph. Curt, Good point re the colder weather dropping more snow instead of rain at higher elevations this year. But it has flooded nine miles of a glacier-carved valley and blocks access to the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and other nearby areas. Official websites use .gov A 1 week change would be interesting to show on each. Check out my **new combined California reservoir and snowpack visualizer** to compare to historical values, as well asthe California precipitation tracker and California snowpack visualizer. Even with all the rain and floods, still a long way to fill them to capacity. Twenty of San How can I match up other monitoring locations similar to the ones on this Interactive Dashboard? Since June 2011, the Water Enterprise has operated the Citys Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS, formerly known as the Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS)), an independent, high-pressure water supply system for fire suppression. Different presidential administrations also have tried to address Its water supply Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in the Sierra Nevada is 80% full, . That said, most of its outflow makes its way down Feather River (via Rock Creek Reservoir) and ultimately into Orville. Are they releasing water to relieve the pressure in anticipation of more water? This November, a group of environmental advocates will put forth a ballot measure that would require the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to develop a plan to drain Hetch Hetchy. She is a University of Washington graduate. The only improvement I would ask you to consider is to allow the Y-axis to be Linear or Log, the latter allowing us to see all the small reservoirs quite easily. It was the only tool that I could find that would allow me to make a vertical marimekko graph. And while one storm didn't come close to ending the drought, some reservoirs in Northern California, especially those that fell right in the path of the storm, saw significant gains. The Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies water for San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area, was at 77% of its 360,000-acre-feet storage capacity in January compared to 73% in. "Some weather monitoring stations in the Feather River drainage received as much as 12 to 19 inches during the period of the storms," the department said. . mobilewarn(); BAWSCA agencies also are implementing water conservation and water recycling projects to help preserve this precious resource for their communities, and are working to identify alternate sources of water supply. San Francisco will be in great shape going into 2023, said Spreck Rosekrans, executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy Its unfortunate that too little is being done with these flows to recharge groundwater basins to help cities and farms and even restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley., Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Thanks for putting this together. The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that supplies San Francisco, seen here in February, is among those that have refilled after two months of storms. This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. Kudos to the designers. The Bay Area portion of the System includes water collection, treatment, and transmission facilities from the Alameda East Portal to the wholesale service area and terminal reservoirs in San Francisco. Thats enough to supply the citys service area for perhaps seven years. The recent spate of storms lifted the statewide snowpack to 190% of average for the start of the month, and more snow is on the way. The group says the recent plethora of water shows that the city could do without Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, by using other storage facilities that have filled and pursuing new projects to capture the surplus. Shasta, Oroville, Hetch Hetchy and many others were built by damming large rivers. I noticed that Folsom does not change whereas every reservoir changes on an hourly update. LK ELEANOR NR HETCH HETCHY CA. It has no natural inflow or out flow. 501(c)3 organization, federal tax ID #942419885. The tremendous inflow to city reservoirs during the recent storms, mostly in and around Yosemite National Park, has lifted San Franciscos total water storage to near capacity. As of Feb. 1, the systems total water storage was just over 1.3 million acre-feet, or about 92% of capacity. Occasionally the source water will shift to local reservoirs during routine maintenance to the conveyance system. What period does CA use for Historical Average? It will be very different depending on the period chosen. CHERRY LK NR HETCH HETCHY CA Important Legacy real-time page Monitoring location 11277200 is associated with a LAKE, RESERVOIR, IMPOUNDMENT in TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. It takes a fair amount of work to make graphs compared to other more plug-and-play libraries but its very customizable, which is a plus. Lake Mendocino, which has a capacity of 122,400 acre feet, saw the biggest boost from 17% of storage capacity in December to 35% in January. A diverse mix of sources protects us from potential disruptions due to emergencies or natural disasters, provides resiliency during periods of drought, and helps us ensure a long-term, sustainable water supply as we address issues such as climate uncertainty, regulatory changes and population growth. That cant be right. The OShaughnessy Dam, which was completed in 1938 and is 430-feet tall, impounds water in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir for communities in the Bay Area. Our flagship blog features analysis of news from our staff and announcements of upcoming events. O'Shaughnessy Dam is a 430-foot (131 m) high concrete arch-gravity dam in Tuolumne County, California, United States.It impounds the Tuolumne River, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the lower end of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, about 160 miles (260 km) east of San Francisco. The Mokolumne River, which originates in the high Sierra, provides more than 90 percent of the East Bay's water and the Owens Valley in the eastern Sierra serves as a key source of water for Los Angeles. Crystal Springs Reservoir, along Highway 280 in San Mateo County, was 89 percent . It would be really interesting to visualize whether were able to replenish ground water this year after all the precipitation. The reservoir is eight miles long and the largest single body of water in Yosemite. construction in the 1920s, various groups have lobbied to restore Forty-six percent . Kellie has held many leadership roles for the Asian American Journalists Association, including most recently a board member for the San Francisco chapter. Kellie Hwang is the newsletter editor for The San Francisco Chronicle. . Love this. And the current water storage amounts are well below the historical averages for this time of year. Your tools are awesome just hurts when you receive bad data at times! Its currently listed on this page as 29kaf full, but the usgs.gov page below says Hetch Hetchy is at 299.7kaf full. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Subscribe to receive email notifications of new content. Park visitors walk across OShaughnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park on Sept. 1. use must be reasonable.. Congress had to approve the project because it was in 2018. Additionally, the bounty helps the more than two dozen communities in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that get their water from the city. generates electricity for the city). For the higher elevations, more of their water comes directly from snowmelt. The Bay Area's main reservoir is up 21 feet. Lake Almanor isnt controlled by DWR for flood/supply. There doesnt seem to be any site that shows the impact of each storm. Diamond Valley Lake is a man-made storage reservoir for storing imported water only. Hetchy refers to a valley in the Sierra Nevada and a reservoir that You can email her at agraff@sfgate.com. For perspective, water demand across the SFPUC's service area of 2.7 million people was about 205,000 acre-feet last fiscal year. a minimum, according to the San Francisco Public Utilities Official websites use .gov If you are on a computer, you can hover your cursor over a reservoir and the dashboard at the top will provide information about that individual reservoir. Part of the lake is on the California side, but it has zero California water impact beyond the immediate Tahoe residents. Steve Ritchie, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's assistant general manager for water, said the additional water amounted to roughly 11% of the reservoir's total capacity. Lock The gain came after weather gauges in the area recorded more than 5 inches from one storm. This chart only shows reservoirs filled via natural flow/rainfall. Long-term values for reservoir inflows use maximum number of complete water years in record. maybe label the vertical axis with aggregate total or system total capacity. San Francisco and the thousands of suburban . document.getElementById('globes').contentWindow.location.reload(); It wont be full until Spring snowmelt. It is also the amount of water in a cube that is 352 feet per side (about the length of a football field). "It is unknown how much area of the Feather River and Shasta Lake drainages are impacted by hydrophobic soils.". Trailhead address: Evergreen Road (Hetch Hetchy Road), Yosemite National Park, CA 95321. Nice! Restore Hetch Hetchy supports a power replacement plan that is truly renewable, and will not increase emissions of any pollutants or carbon that causes global warming. The OShaughnessy Dam i s 300 feet tall only medium-sized by todays standards. Its not possible to see or really interact with the tiniest slivers. So included in DWR #S. The SFPUC has voiced concerns with the Plan, as it would dramatically reduce the agencys water supply, leaving it subject to significant rationing in droughts and more extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change. The blue line indicates the reservoirs water level one year ago today. Another not monitored by the State? A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the I am grateful for all that you have done here to open our eyes to what is happening, what has happened, and even what might be on the horizon. In the year prior to Oroville reaching capacity the interactive chart showed the rate of inflow over time. The water system, which includes the landmark Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, is expected to fill this winter, for the first time since 2019, with nearly 1.5 million acre-feet of water. Just in case a large storm hits, that way they dont reach 100% capacity. Delivery rates are 7-day average values. reserved. You can also share a custom URL by clicking the Save URL button which will put the custom URL into the URL bar of your browser which you can then copy and share. Its important to note that other communities in California have taken actions in far greater magnitude than SF to make our waterways more sustainable. Before returning to the Bay Area, she held roles as transportation reporter and trending news reporter at the IndyStar in Indianapolis. Together, the BAWSCA agencies account for two-thirds of water consumption from the system and pay for two-thirds of its upkeep. The SFPUC hoards water in dry years when they dont need to, said Peter Drekmeier, policy director at the conservation group Tuolumne River Trust. After the reservoirs 2013, photo, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is hazy with smoke . HETCH HETCHY RES A HETCH HETCHY CA. function resizeframe(){ Meanwhile, the group Restore Hetch Hetchy is urging the SFPUC to abandon Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. So they should be saving much more and deal with the .000001 of risk later. Article X, Section 2 that requires diversions for all water The advocacy group Restore Hetch Hetchy took its case for Northern California's reservoir levels continued to rise in the week after an atmospheric river slammed the state with torrential rain and high winds. Turn right on to Hetch Hetchy Road - Evergreen Road and continue another 7.5 miles to the parking area for Hetchy Hetchy Reservoir next to the dam. Located within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, the reservoir saw a sizable 21.31-foot bump in its water level and gained 36,300 acre-feet, according to Tuesday data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Hetch Hetchy Level before the storm: 3,729.68 feet Level after the storm: 3,750.99 feet Total rise: 21.31 feet Storage before the storm: 221,500 acre-feet Storage after the storm: 257,800. Flood control agencies (not DWR) have the most say in regard to releases. Current as of October 03, 2022 | Updated by . Francisco Bay Area. I live in the central valley. Congressman Tom McClintock has re-introduced theYosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act, a bill that would allow non-motorized Sign up to receive blog posts and other news by email. If you click on the list button in the top right of the dashboard, it will show a list of the reservoirs (in order of size from largest to smallest) and you can check which ones you would like to display. She is also an alumna of Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting Investigative Fellowship and The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. The maximum that the city has put away is 570,000 acre-feet of water. Isabella is filling quite slowly in order to test out the new $500 million spillway. February 21, 2023 - BAWSCA Statement on State Water Resources Control Board'sSchedule for Consideration of a Voluntary Agreement for the Tuolumne River. All rights reserved. It was at 60 percent as of March 1 and rising, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. More about the Tuolumne River Voluntary Agreement can be found athttp://www.tuolumnerivermanagementplan.com. San Franciscos water-bank in Don Pedro Reservoir, downstream on the Tuolumne River, holds twice as much water as Hetch Hetchy. All Rights Reserved. Related articles . There are many very small reservoirs (relative to Shasta) so the bars will be very thin to the point where they are barely a sliver or may not even show up.